Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Making the habit …

***2 cups of coffee, 5500 steps, and one yoghurt topped with
crunchy fiber***

Let’s begin again.

I’ve been busy as hell, y’all! As you may know, I co-founded
Reproaction three years ago as a direct-action organization to increase access to abortion and advance
reproductive justice. We've been busy since day one, and that has
only increased since the Trump regime took power. Visit our website to find
out more about our campaigns, read recaps of our direct actions, and register
to receive opportunities to take action via email.

Anyhoo, I’ve missed writing here. It’s been 13 years, give
or take a few months, since my first post! I’m pretty sure that was about the
British royal family, and Lawd has that shit changed since 2005.

Blink.

I’ve been thinking about the habits in my life, some healthy
and some not so healthy. Sharing the fine art of bitchitude with y’all is
totally in the health column. So, I’ve quit smoking, picked up walking, started
eating fruit on a daily basis, and I’m back here to bitch and plot and
strategize and laugh with whoever wants to join in.

Please be patient as I get back into the rhythm of posting.

I’d like to share a quick note about the power of community
within movement spaces. Over the years I’ve shared a lot about the problems,
bullshit, and destructive weaponized wokeness in progressive spaces that
continues to work my last nerve even as it contributes little to the movement beyond
drama.

But the community, y’all.

The regular acts of compassion,
support, encouragement, and solidarity that often happen offline or in private
exchanges. Those, along with my amazing family and friends, are what sustain and nourish my soul. We all need that shit,
now more than ever.

The other day, a dear friend called me because she was
having a good day.

For real.

She was feeling good, enjoying work, happy with her
partner and pet companions … the weather was beautiful, the crickets were
jamming to a cool beat, and all her household appliances worked.

And she called to ask how I was, and share that
there are still good days complete with happy dogs and cats, excellent coffee, sunshine
filled skies, and dishwashers that wash dishes.

Even now, in the midst of our long national nightmare.

I should point out that this friend has had more than a few tough days. She’s an immigration rights activist, and she’s been so
busy that I haven’t seen her in
over a year. So, it really touched me
that she was having a good day, and that in the middle of that nice day she
paused to reach out to me even though there was a pretty good chance I’d piss
in her Corn Flakeswith some drama or
other happening in my world. That’s the very definition of sweet and generous,
and it was delightful to talk to her and hear the smile in her voice.

Anyhoo, I’m just sharing to speak into the universe that
these horrible fiends will not take my joy or all the nice days or my ability to be simply enjoy a nice chat with a good person.

It may come and go. At any given time, I’m frustrated and
angry and scared and tired and disgusted and short tempered.

Okay, the short tempered bit isn’t new, but anyway.

There are also moments of laughter and joy and happiness
and soothing pockets of normal.

Those moments matter too. They are our regularly scheduled
reminders of what we are fighting for that drop down in the middle of the
exhausting cycle of resistance to remind us that resistance is a stage, not the
end goal.

8 comments:

It's really good to read your voice again. I get the Reproaction emails and see you mentioned occasionally on Show Me Progress, but I've been reading this here blog a long damn time, and your writing voice here is how I think of you. And you're right. Life is strong, and its daily expressions assert its strength in the life-habits we form. I quit smoking in '07, had a stroke anyway in '08, and with the help of my doctor (now I have a doctor) I have grown a whole new set of healthier habits than the ones I settled into when I was being a musician with a day job for all of those years. It's harder to put up a good resistance when you walk with a quad-cane, but it can be done, and that's sort of the point: we need to care for ourselves and each other so we have what it takes to make it through this. Also because it's the right thing to do. Barbara Lee is my congresswoman, and she signs the bottom of the emails she sends me with "onward"...